Sept. 11 families call TikTok users’ ‘sympathy’ for bin Laden ‘appalling’
A furious group representing scores of 9/11 families says it is “appalling” that young TikTok users are sharing Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” and showing “sympathy” for the terror leader.
“No Americans should ever not know Osama bin Laden was a terrorist who helped mastermind the murder of nearly 3,000 innocent Americans on Sept. 11, 2001,” seethed Terry Strada, national chair of 9/11 Families United — an organization that represents more than 10,000 relatives of the slain victims, survivors and those sickened or injured in the terror attacks — to The Post in a statement.
“These Americans were our husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and daughters,” she said of the terror-attack victims.
“It is appalling to witness younger Americans voicing sympathy for bin Laden’s dangerous and antisemitic worldview 22 years after our nation was horrifically attacked and our loved ones were callously murdered by Islamists who were financially supported by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and at Osama bin Laden’s direction,” Strada continued.
“We strongly encourage these Americans who are not old enough to remember the brutality of 9/11 to seek out reliable sources to educate themselves instead of forming their misguided opinions based on TikTok videos.
“We also call on TikTok to stop allowing its platform to be used to promote terrorist propaganda.
“No American should ever forget that Osama bin Laden’s stated goal was to impose the virulent Wahhabi version of Islam promoted by Saudi Arabia on ‘infidels’ and ‘non-believers around the world and here in America — the version that treats women as second-class citizens, prosecutes homosexuals, kills journalists and embraces beheadings for minor deviations from the Wahhabi doctrine,” the chairwoman said.
“That was his goal with 9/11, and no one should ever forget,” she said.
The group’s statement echoed one released by the White House, which decried the videos promoting bin Laden’s 2002 letter as an “insult” to the “innocent” victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
“There is never a justification for spreading the repugnant, evil and antisemitic lies that the leader of al Qaeda issued just after committing the worst terrorist attack in American history — highlighting them as his direct motivation for murdering 2,977 innocent Americans,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said.
“No one should ever insult the 2,977 American families still mourning loved ones by associating themselves with the vile words of Osama bin Laden, particularly now, at a time of rising antisemitic violence in the world, and just after Hamas terrorists carried out the world slaughter of the Jewish people since the Holocaust in the name of the same conspiracy theories,” he said.
“Like President Biden said this year in remembrance of the Americans who lost their lives because of Osama bin Laden, ‘It’s more important now than ever that we come together’ against a rising tide of hatred and extremism.”
The slain terror leader’s old message went viral online this week, as Gen Zers cited it for changing their worldviews in light of the atrocities of Hamas terrorists and Israel’s counterattacks.
The most heinous quotes from Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’
- “Your law is the law of the rich and wealthy people, who hold sway in their political parties, and fund their election campaigns with their gifts. Behind them stand the Jews, who control your policies, media and economy.”
- “These governments have surrendered to the Jews, and handed them most of Palestine, acknowledging the existence of their state over the dismembered limbs of their own people.”
- “We also call you to deal with us and interact with us on the basis of mutual interests and benefits, rather than the policies of sub dual, theft and occupation, and not to continue your policy of supporting the Jews because this will result in more disasters for you.”
- “The British handed over Palestine, with your help and your support, to the Jews, who have occupied it for more than 50 years; years overflowing with oppression, tyranny, crimes, killing, expulsion, destruction and devastation. The creation and continuation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes, and you are the leaders of its criminals.”
- “And of course there is no need to explain and prove the degree of American support for Israel. The creation of Israel is a crime which must be erased. Each and every person whose hands have become polluted in the contribution towards this crime must pay its price, and pay for it heavily.”
- “These governments prevent our people from establishing the Islamic Shariah, using violence and lies to do so.”
- “Do not await anything from us but Jihad, resistance and revenge.”
- “Also the American army is part of the American people. It is this very same people who are shamelessly helping the Jews fight against us. The American people are the ones who employ both their men and their women in the American Forces which attack us. This is why the American people cannot be not innocent of all the crimes committed by the Americans and Jews against us.”
In his twisted missive, bin Laden claimed that he orchestrated the deadly attacks on the World Trade Center because the US “attacked us in Palestine.”
Bin Laden — who was famously killed by US Navy SEALS in a dramatic night raid on his Pakistan compound in 2011 — called the creation of Israel a “crime which must be erased” and went on to assert that in the US, Jews “control your policies, media and economy.”
The Guardian, which had published the full text of the letter in 2002, pulled it down Wednesday, citing the fact in a statement that it was being “widely shared on social media without the full context.
“Therefore we have decided to take it down and direct readers to the news article that originally contextualized it instead,” the outlet said.
A TikTok rep said, “Content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism” and added that the company was “proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform.”
At the same time, the company bizarrely tried to deny that the bin Laden-related content had gone viral — despite videos showing it had racked up hundreds of thousands of views.
“The number of videos on TikTok is small, and reports of it trending on our platform are inaccurate,” the representative claimed. “This is not unique to TikTok and has appeared across multiple platforms and the media.”
Meanwhile, a group of Jewish celebrities and TikTok influencers met virtually with executives to discuss the rise of antisemitism on the platform.
Many who spoke at the hearing claimed they have been bombarded with messages reading, “Hitler was right” and “I hope you end up like Anne Frank,” according to the New York Times, which reviewed a recording of the meeting.
Actor Sacha Baron Cohen went even further, accusing TikTok of creating “the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis.”
The British star told the TikTok execs they could simply “flip a switch” to fix antisemitism on the platform.
“Shame on you,” he told the execs, led by TikTok’s head of operations, Adam Presser, and global head of user operations, Seth Melnick, the Times said.
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